Imagine the irony, the United States President Barack
Obama who relied heavily on social media to win election in 2008, has
admitted that he banned his daughters from using Facebook.
Giving reason for his action, Obama said he did not want ‘strangers
knowing our business,’ adding that it ‘does not make much sense’ to put
the most private details of his family life on public view.

His eldest daughter, Malia, is 13, and just old enough to use Facebook. Her younger sister Sasha is 10.
‘But Mr. Obama said he won’t consider allowing them to join the site
until they are both four years older,’ said a report in Britain’s Daily
Mail recently.

‘His
admission seems somewhat ironic, given that he made full use of
Facebook and other websites to encourage the young to vote for him in
the presidential election – and to raise millions of dollars for his
campaign. As a result, he became known as the ‘First Social Media
President,’ the paper added.
Obama’s Facebook page – which has 24 million ‘likes’ – remains a key part of his ongoing efforts to seek re-election.

In an interview, the president described the thinking behind the
Facebook ban as: ‘Why would we want to have a whole bunch of people who
we don’t know knowing our business? That doesn’t make much sense.’
He added: ‘We’ll see how they (his daughters) feel in four years.’

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I do not see anything wrong in what Barack has done in this case. And the fact that he used and still uses social media like facebook and twitter for his election and re-election programme does not mean he now despises or oppose them, also the reason for the ban is clear. The people that he uses social media to mobilise are not members of the american first family and do not run the same risks as his family does in allowing his daughters to use facebook at 13yrs and 10yrs. The children might as well wait till they can handle the pressure and attention their social media accounts will come with so that they do not provide access to propangandists and political opponents into the inner circles of the first family's life.